Putting the Bishop and the Nightie to Bed

Abstract

The bishop and the nightie was a light-hearted sketch on The Late Late Show that turned into a minor media controversy. It subsequently became a perennial foot note in this history of television in Ireland. In this chapter, Brennan challenges orthodox accounts of this event. He argues that the event does not mark a pivotal moment where television broke the silence of old Ireland. Rather the event points the ideological closure of academic and media commentary on television in Ireland. It also points to an early moment where the logic of mass media began to inform media historiography.

Flynn, Roderick. “‘It Is Against the Basic Concepts of Good Government to Subject Our People to Rosemary Clooney at the Public Expense’: Imported Programming on Early Irish Television.” Éire-Ireland 50, no. 1 (2015): 66–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar